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1 Melanchthon and Luther Luther’s lives Philip Melanchthon and the historical Luther by Ralph Keen ‘Isaiah . . . John the Baptist . . . Paul . . . Augustine . . . Luther’: with these five names Philip Melanchthon identified the points of descent in the transmission of the true faith of the church.1 The occasion was Luther’s funeral, at which Melanchthon, the eulogist, would describe the Wittenberg community as being like orphans bereft of an excellent and faithful father.2 The combination of reverence and affection for the great Reformer reflected in these comments
15 Melanchthon on Luther 2 Melanchthon on Luther Luther’s lives Philip Melanchthon’s History of the Life and Acts of Dr Martin Luther translated by Thomas D. Frazel and annotated by Ralph Keen HISTORY OF THE LIFE AND ACTS OF THE MOST REVEREND DR MARTIN Luther, Dr of true Theology, written in good faith by Philip Melanchthon Certain poems have been added by John Policarius 1 on the blessings which God through Luther bestowed upon the whole world. Including several distichs on the Acts of Luther, which were recounted in this same year. 1548. Reverend Martin
Conrad Gessner (1516–65) was town physician and lecturer at the Zwinglian reformed lectorium in Zurich. His approach towards the world and mankind was centred on his preoccupation with the human soul, an object of study that had challenged classical writers such as Aristotle and Galen, and which remained as important in post-Reformation debate. Writing commentaries on Aristotles De Anima (On the Soul) was part of early-modern natural philosophy education at university and formed the preparatory step for studying medicine. This article uses the case study of Gessners commentary on De Anima (1563) to explore how Gessners readers prioritised De Animas information. Gessners intention was to provide the students of philosophy and medicine with the most current and comprehensive thinking. His readers responses raise questions about evolving discussions in natural philosophy and medicine that concerned the foundations of preventive healthcare on the one hand, and of anatomically specified pathological medicine on the other, and Gessners part in helping these develop.
This book presents a contemporary, eyewitness account of the life of Martin Luther translated into English. Johannes Cochlaeus (1479–1552) was present in the great hall at the Diet of Worms on April 18, 1521 when Luther made his famous declaration before Emperor Charles V: ‘Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen’. Afterward, Cochlaeus sought Luther out, met him at his inn, and privately debated with him. Luther wrote of Cochlaeus, ‘may God long preserve this most pious man, born to guard and teach the Gospel of His church, together with His word, Amen’. However, the confrontation left Cochlaeus convinced that Luther was an impious and malevolent man. Over the next twnety-five years, Cochlaeus barely escaped the Peasant's War with his life. He debated with Melanchthon and the reformers of Augsburg. It was Cochlaeus who conducted the authorities to the clandestine printing press in Cologne, where William Tyndale was preparing the first English translation of the New Testament (1525). For an eyewitness account of the Reformation—and the beginnings of the Catholic Counter-Reformation—no other historical document matches the first-hand experience of Cochlaeus. After Luther's death, it was rumoured that demons seized the reformer on his death-bed and dragged him off to Hell. In response to these rumours, Luther's friend and colleague Philip Melanchthon wrote and published a brief encomium of the reformer in 1548. Cochlaeus consequently completed and published his monumental life of Luther in 1549.
Introduction Introduction Introduction We have only two substantial eyewitness accounts of the life of Martin Luther. Best known is a 9,000-word Latin memoir by Philip Melanchthon published in Latin at Heidelberg in 1548, two years after the Reformer’s death.1 In 1561, ‘Henry Bennet, Callesian’ translated this pamphlet into English; the martyrologist John Foxe adopted Bennet’s text into his Memorials verbatim, including a number of the Englisher’s mistranslations. For example, where Melanchthon wrote that Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle
In this chapter, I introduce the critical paradigm of Sidney’s Philippism as a means by which to read Sidney’s New Arcadia . I examine the alternative modern critical approaches to Sidney’s piety and the significance of his religious outlook for reading his literary works. As well as highlighting the status of Melanchthon’s theology in Sidney’s society, I demonstrate the peculiar suitability of the romance form for articulating a Philippist ethos. Moreover, I show how the Arcadia , especially its revised version, which has been conventionally seen as a less
, justice, clemency and compassion towards his subjects – ‘laus fortitudinis, sed etiam iustitiae, clementi[a]e, & pietatis erga subditos tribuiter’ (a3v). 10 Warschewiczki’s translation is further politicised through Philip Melanchthon’s prefatory epistle to his dearest friend, Oporin, dated 20 April 1551 (a4). 11 Once Luther’s assistant in Wittenberg, Melanchthon (1497
on the 15th day of April. However, Luther came to Worms on 16 April, when the Lutherans were not yet able to know what the Parisians had decided. But after a few months, when certain printed copies of this opinion arrived in Germany, all the Lutherans changed their minds and began to accuse those whom before they had praised. And in order that their contempt toward the Parisians because of this verdict might seem greater, Philip Melanchthon, as a fervent defender of Luther, edited that same opinion about them, by which he augmented his Latin Apology for Luther
Wood reads Philip Sidney’s New Arcadia in the light of the ethos known as
Philippism, after the followers of Philip Melanchthon the Protestant theologian.
He employs a critical paradigm previously used to discuss Sidney’s Defence of
Poesy and narrows the gap that critics have found between Sidney’s
theory and literary practice. This book is a valuable resource for scholars and
researchers in the fields of literary and religious studies.
Various strands
of philosophical, political and theological thought are accommodated within the
New Arcadia, which conforms to the kind of literature praised by
Melanchthon for its examples of virtue. Employing the same philosophy, Sidney,
in his letter to Queen Elizabeth and in his fiction, arrogates to himself the
role of court counsellor. Robert Devereux also draws, Wood argues, on the
optimistic and conciliatory philosophy signified by Sidney’s New
Arcadia.
works. In addressing this issue, it is useful to remember that Languet’s moderate philosophy was itself an inheritance from his own tutor, Philip Melanchthon. As I discussed in the previous chapter, Melanchthon was a key figure in the Lutheran Reformation, noted for his moderation and ecumenical inclusivity, whose works, as Robert Stillman notes, ‘were more often owned than those of any other reformed theologian’. 16 Indeed, in his letter to Sidney, Languet acknowledges Melanchthon as the source of his moderate views, and refuses to compromise them: Thus far